Love Stinks
by panictowel
Summary: AU MCR, frerard: After his boyfriend left him, Gerard feels grumpy and doesn't need his brother's childhood friend to cheer him up. Frank disagrees.  A/N: unfinished for the time being


**Disclaimer:** it's _fan fiction_. this one is based on the members of MCR, parts of The Used, and TBS. title stolen from the J. Geils Band song.  
**Beta:** Le soleil brille pas pour toi.  
**A/N:** one of these ideas you start writing scenes for, and then you lose interest in the bandom and have the first chapter, a few scenes, but no complete chaptered fic … just lying around, half betaed.  
maybe I get motivated to finish this, or find a way to post the other scenes for it. nobody knows.  
and maybe someone is entertained by this:

* * *

**Chapter 01  
**

He knew he should just stop mulling this over and keep with the it's-only-your-heart-and-nothing-else mindset. It'd be over in a few days.

_Yeah. 'Cause it works that way. 'Cause everyone around you is gay or bi and you can just find someone else that easily._

Right now it felt as if he should go back to taking those antidepressants.

Gerard let out a breath. It didn't help the sick feeling in his stomach and chest.

* * *

Adam; old, neat fences; noodles.

Noodles and Adam. White fences. For some weird reason these disconnected things where the only ones that floated through his mind. And he felt anger rise when he didn't find the connection. He frowned.

"Honey."

He grunted, letting his mom know he was listening. Which he was not.

"Did you hear what I said?"

"Yeah… yeah." Gerard frowned out the window, waving his hand shortly to dismiss her attention.

"Alright then, what did I just tell you?"

"Yeah, whatever," he answered, eyes on the houses they drove by; not caring, not listening, not caring. She sighed. He didn't care. He could tick off the fences. They drove by them, one by one. Adam—well, he knew why he was haunting his thoughts. The noodles though… those could become a problem.

"You've gotta stop thinking about him. You know it wouldn't have lasted forever anyway."

"Hm." Gerard crossed his arms in the passenger seat, narrowing his eyes and frowning out the window. He hadn't even heard what she had said; his thoughts were still focused on his trip with Adam. Adam. _Fuck you, Adam. And please come back._

And this wasn't even him being a teenager with volatile moods anymore; no, he was twenty-three, attending art school and actually enjoying life. More or less. The point was—his boyfriend had left him and he thought he'd take it more… more anything than being so juvenile about it and turn into Grumpy. Goddammit.

The car stopped and Gerard realized his mom had parked by the sidewalk of his grandma's house. What now?

He turned his head to his mom, who was leaning back through the space between their seats, grabbing something from the backseat. As she sat back up and sent him a smile, he said, "I thought we were going right home?"

Her smile faltered. "Gerard, I just told you, we're going to visit grandma for a moment. I thought you were listening?" she asked, and elbowed him lightly in the arm.

"No." He turned his head to the house again and sighed. Maybe he should call Adam. Or were they even friends anymore?

"Are you coming?"

"Can I stay here and wait?" He looked at his mother, who was already standing on the street, bending down and looking inside the car at him. "No. Get out!" She sounded friendly enough, she knew he was heartbroken. Dead inside. Black. Ripped up. Bleeding._ As if something dead could bleed._ He was aching. Drama, drama, drama. Maybe that's why Adam didn't like him anymore.

He huffed and got out of the car when his mom tapped at his window, balancing a bowl with food in her hand, purse dangling from her elbow.

* * *

"Those were really good, Donna."

"Thank you," Donna smiled and flicked ash from her cigarette into the ashtray on the table they were seated around, having eaten some noodles. Well, _they_ had eaten. Gerard had poked at the food with a menacing glare, thinking about… well, have a guess.

He was mulling over the events of their trip over and over again, frowning when he thought of the obvious signs over the past weeks of Adam wanting to break up with him. He knew it. He just didn't want to believe it.

"Man, I'm hungry!" A deep male voice tore him from his thoughts. He stayed hunched over his plate, fork paused in midair from attacking the pasta dish. He glanced over at a boy standing in the doorway, yawning and stretching before letting his arms fall down to his sides and smiling at them all.

Ah yeah, Frank. Frank Iero, good friend of his brother, annoying him constantly whenever he had been over at their house, though he knew he had only tried to be a friendly little ass. His way of 'connecting' with people. Frank Iero, who had been homeless for five hours when his parents had announced they were going to move to New York. Frank, the dork, had decided he wanted to stay in Jersey with his friends and school and all. Leave it to the boy with the tattoos and piercings and constantly-changing hairstyle to manage to make Elena offer him a room in her house to stay in for the next years until he had finished his education. Fucker. Now they were all off to college and seeing as it was their summer vacation, the boys were home again.

"Hello, Mrs. Way, how are you?"

"Fine, Frank. How are you doing?"

"Great, thanks. Hey, Gerard." After having shaken hands politely with Donna, Frank had reached his hand out for Gerard to take. Gerard frowned at him and returned his gaze to his food, stabbing around in it with his fork.

"Gerard, don't be so sullen, honey."

Gerard just kept frowning, ignored his mother's ability to still treat him like a child, and drifted off into his own little world again. Frank Iero, everybody's darling. Everybody fucking loved him—and maybe that was why he had constantly tried to make friends with Gerard when they all went to school; because Gerard was not interested and thus a challenge. He had Adam and his own friends. (Not the best influence, as his mother had put it several times, so she wasn't severely heartbroken herself, when Gerard had returned from his holiday with the guys and announced grimly that Adam had left him.)

And just like that, Gerard was off, staring at the table, thinking of Adam again. So. Pathetic.

"Have something to eat, Frank." Elena invited him, and Frank went to the counter to get himself some noodles that Gerard's mom had made that same day. He should have suspected something, Gerard thought, eyeing the huge portion on the stove.

Gerard watched uninterested as Frank plopped down next to him, digging into his food and announcing after a few bites that it tasted delicious. Ever the charmer. The women grinned at the hungry boy, and Gerard wanted to stick his fork into Frank's head and lean back to smirk and admire his work.

"So, what have you been up to?" Frank asked, and continued eating.

Gerard looked at Frank suspiciously, and saw him looking over at him, smiling. The question was obviously directed at him. Fucker.

"Nothing." Gerard looked back down at his plate, finally letting the fork rest and fall with a clink.

His mom smiled at him, but shook her head at his behaviour before turning back to the others. "He just went through—"

"Mom!" Gerard interrupted warningly, glaring at her. She was not going to finish that sentence.

"What? I just wanted to—"

"Well, don't."

They were all silent for a while, allowing Gerard to return to glaring at the table again, when Elena spoke up. "Everything's alright, Gerard?"

Gerard nodded shortly, getting more and more pissed off. He just wanted to have a smoke and get away. Then that little bastard spoke again, clearly not bothered by the atmosphere. "Hey, I'm going to watch a gig tonight, you wanna come? It's gonna be awesome, you know wh-"

"Not interested."

"Gerard, come on. You need to get out again and forget—"

"Mom!" _Seriously!_ "I said no."

Apparently she wasn't aware of Frank being the enemy. The enemy, who should mind his own fucking business. The women shrugged and apparently came to the unspoken agreement of talking about it later, when they were alone or on the phone. Probably nothing could stop them.

"Ah, well, that was really good, Donna. Thanks," Frank said after a while of the women chatting with him about everything and nothing. He got up and brought his dishes to the sink, getting a Coke from the fridge and opening the can.

"I'm going back to my room, wanna join, Gee?"

Gee? What the fuck? Since when… _Arrgh_. He wasn't Mikey for fuck's sake, nor was Gerard. Goddammit, he was still so annoying.

"No, thanks."

"Go on, Gerard, you don't wanna hang out with us ladies all the time."

"God," Gerard groaned, but got up, feeling for his cigarettes in his pockets, deciding he would slip out the backdoor instead. He rolled his eyes inwardly at seeing Frank's face lighten up slightly, when he saw Gerard getting up.

Frank then said his goodbyes and walked out of the kitchen. Gerard followed him, playing with his lighter. They walked down the corridor. Frank had started talking about that night's concert; Gerard didn't listen. When Frank opened a door and went inside his room, Gerard walked past it and towards the backdoor, fishing a cigarette out of the pack, sticking it between his lips, and putting the pack back in his pocket.

"Gerard? Where are you going? I was just telling you something and when I turned around you weren't there and I swear I saw Ginn smirking at me from down the wall for talking to my invisible friend."

Gerard closed his eyes and stopped. _How. Fucking. Annoying. Can one get?_ He turned around slowly, cigarette hanging loosely between his lips and raised his eyebrows at a grinning Frank, who stood by the doorway with his hands in his pockets. He could fucking do the math himself.

When he didn't do or said anything else, Gerard took a step backwards, pointing at the cigarette. "'m going out for a smoke."

"Oh, but you can smoke in here. I'll just open the window, no problem. Come on." Frank waved for him to come back and Gerard sighed and turned his head to look at the backdoor. So close and yet so far away.

"Come on." Maybe some company would be good, to distract him from his never-ending thoughts of Adam. Even if it was Frank, who would distract him with his stupid babbling. Fuck. Gerard sagged his shoulders and took the cigarette from his lips. He walked back to Frank, who held out a hand. "Can I bum one?"

Gerard didn't look up, but got the pack from his pockets and tossed it to Frank, who caught it, walking in the room after Gerard and closing the door behind them.

Gerard walked across the room, glancing only briefly around its messy contents before he reached the window and opened it up wide. He wrinkled his nose at the strong smell. Hell, was Frank smoking all his goddamn weed in here? Stupid fucker. Good thing Elena never entered anybody's personal space just like that.

Gerard leaned his side against the wall, lit his cigarette and looked out the window with narrowed eyes; the tight feeling in his chest still hadn't left him since Adam had called it quits. He didn't notice Frank standing in front of him, leaning against a table and smirking.

"Lighter?"

"You have your own." Gerard had already put his away and, well… But Frank only held a hand out, eyes never leaving Gerard's, grinning. He was probably stoned; Gerard thought back to the huge portion of noodles he had just eaten in the kitchen. He rummaged through his pockets, fishing out the lighter and trying to flick it on. "Stupid piece of shit," he mumbled, after failing several times. He held it closer to his body, his free hand around it, protecting it from the light breeze that came from the open window.

Suddenly his cigarette was gone from his lips and he looked up, just in time to see Frank stick his—apparently former—cigarette between his lips and putting Frank's _unlit_ one between Gerard's. Yeah. Maybe he should have done something, but he was too surprised by the bloody boldness that came from Frank fucking Iero.

"You're too slow." Frank smiled lazily after having taken a drag and tapped some ashes out the window, leaning slightly into Gerard during the movement, who didn't give a fuck and ignored him.

"Well, it's not fucking working," Gerard said angrily and to prove his point, he held the lighter up, flicking it again, only to stare at it madly, because it _did_ work.

Frank let out a chuckle and watched Gerard roll his eyes before lighting up the cigarette Frank had stuck between his lips just a moment ago.

Gerard's eyes went back to staring out the window and just as he began to think of Adam again, Frank spoke up. "So, what is it that you 'went through', your mom mentioned before?"

"Nothing." Gerard took a deep drag from his cigarette, eyes not leaving the streets he could manage to see from this side of the house.

Frank hopped up on the table, legs dangling, eyes on Gerard.

Gerard took an unobtrusive step back when their legs touched.

"Had a fight with your boyfriend or something?"

Gerard's eyes snapped back to Frank, looking at him suspiciously once again. "No."

"You so did," Frank said lazily, but his eyes lit up as if he would get a prize for guessing right. "What was it about? Did he tell you to smile at him once a day and you couldn't be bothered to take the challenge?"

Gerard let out a breath of smoke directly in Frank's smiling face before turning on his heels to walk to the door. "Fuck you, Iero."

Before he could walk two steps away from Frank though, the boy was on his feet and gripping him around the wrist, holding him back. "Come on, stay. I'm even sorry and all. Wanna talk about it?"

Gerard frowned at Frank's hand on his arm, then back up at Frank. Neither glare freed him. He stepped back and took another drag. "Let go," he said lazily, the desire to sulk in his own room now edging closer to his consciousness, while he was getting angrier at himself every second for this stupid behavior.

"No, stay, really," Frank insisted, changing the hand on Gerard's wrist so he could lean back and flick some ashes out the window. And Gerard thought it might be because he longed for someone to just touch him that he hadn't thrown Frank out of the window yet.

"Then let go."

Frank grinned at him again, before letting go and walking around Gerard, putting out his cigarette on the windowsill and plopping down on his bed. Gerard turned around, watching Frank on the bed for a while, before taking Frank's former place by the table, smoking the rest of his cigarette. Frank sat up and leaned over the floor, reaching to put on some music. Gerard stole a glance at his tattooed skin underneath his shirt, where it just revealed a bit as he stretched to reach the buttons on his stereo. After succeeding, Frank sat back down on his bed and sipped his Coke, turning his attention to Gerard again. "Hey, about the gig tonight."

"Why are you asking me to go? Take some friends or something."

"Yeah, they'll be there too, I just thought you might wanna—"

"No."

Frank chuckled and raised his hands in surrender, and Gerard frowned and turned his head the other way, having a look at the backyard of this and the neighbor's house.


End file.
